Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries / Edition 1 available in Paperback
Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries / Edition 1
- ISBN-10:
- 0520292375
- ISBN-13:
- 9780520292376
- Pub. Date:
- 08/22/2017
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- ISBN-10:
- 0520292375
- ISBN-13:
- 9780520292376
- Pub. Date:
- 08/22/2017
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries / Edition 1
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Overview
- are introduced to the sociology of deviance
- learn to analyze several kinds of criminal deviance that involve unwilling victims--such as murder, rape, street-level property crime, and white-collar crime
- learn to examine several categories of "lifestyle" and "status" deviance
- develop skills for critical analysis of criminal justice and social policies
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780520292376 |
---|---|
Publisher: | University of California Press |
Publication date: | 08/22/2017 |
Edition description: | First Edition |
Pages: | 496 |
Sales rank: | 966,194 |
Product dimensions: | 7.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Views of Deviance
CONTENTS
Introduction Blurred Boundaries: The Drama of Deviance Deviance as Demonic Deviance as Psychotic Deviance as Exotic Deviance as Symbolic Interaction: A Sociological Approach Social Acts Focus on Observable Behavior Symbolic Interaction The Sociological Promise Summary Keywords
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
* Define deviance in sociological terms
* Recognize "blurred boundaries" as a key feature of deviance
* Describe three "popular" explanations of deviance
* Explain the sociological approach to studying deviance
* Summarize the importance of a sociological understanding of deviance
INTRODUCTION
Virtually all humans make distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad, normal and weird. It is hard to imagine that we could be human — or survive as a species — without making such distinctions. The sociology of deviance is devoted to studying the "bad," "wrong," and "weird" side of these divisions: what people consider immoral, criminal, strange, and disgusting. Deviance includes the broadest possible scope of such activities — not just criminal acts, but also any actions, thoughts, feelings, or social statuses that members of a social group judge to be a violation of their values or rules. This book provides a sociological understanding of deviance, as well as examines many of the major categories of deviance in contemporary American society.
Few things in life touch such sensitive nerves as seeing or hearing about things we consider deviant. Our blood rises, our tempers flare, we are flooded with disgust, and we often find ourselves struggling to understand how anyone could do something so immoral or obscene. Even so, unless we have lived the most sheltered of lives, we also recognize that not everyone sees things the way we do. Some people approve of behaviors that we personally find reprehensible, and some acts that we personally enjoy or participate in may be considered reprehensible by others. Even when almost all of us agree that someone is deviant or has engaged in deviant behavior, we may find ourselves disagreeing about the reasons for their deviance. We may believe the person is evil, sick, inconsiderate, or just does not know better than to behave that way.
One of the key features of deviance is its blurred boundaries, the often hazy distinctions between what is considered good or bad, right or wrong, and the confusion that we face when we try to explain why. We can start our journey with a few examples that give a sense of the range of things that fall under the deviance umbrella. At first blush, each of the following cases is likely to seem crystal clear as a case of deviance. However, as we probe deeper, a disquieting realization that the boundaries that separate these acts and conditions from what some may consider acceptable becomes cloudier. Further, each case may be explained in radically different ways.
BLURRED BOUNDARIES: THE DRAMA OF DEVIANCE
First, consider the case of calculated, cold-blooded murder as related by a professional "hit man" explaining his "craft" compared to murders that occur in the heat of the moment. "There are people who will go ape for one minute and shoot," he says, "but there are very few people who are capable of thinking about, planning, and then doing it." He continues:
There are three things you need to kill a man: the gun, the bullets, and the balls. A lot of people will point a gun at you, but they haven't got the courage to pull the trigger. It's as simple as that. It may be that some are born with "heart," while others acquire it. But you can't let feelings get in the way. Take my last hit: The victim began to beg. He went so far as to tell us where he had stashed his money. Finally, he realized there was absolutely nothing he could do. He sat there quietly. Then, he started crying. I didn't feel a thing for him.
— Joey (1973 p.56)
The second case involves a form of child sex abuse that, hidden for decades, has become well documented in recent years: sexual relations between some Catholic priests and children, as illustrated by one young man's experience:
Ed's abuse began as a condition of absolution. The youth confessed to impure thoughts and to the sin of pride. Father Terrence directed him to learn self-control. The lesson was simple, Ed alleges: the priest would masturbate him, or lie on top of him rubbing their groins together, but would stop just shy of Ed's ejaculation. "Desensitization," Father Terrance called this ... Ed remembers Father Terrance telling him, "You are special. You are pleasing to God. But you have this corruptible side you must learn to control."
— Burkett and Bruni (1993, p.76)
Our third case comes from the world of professional baseball. During the 1998 season, a great sports rivalry unfolded as the Saint Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire raced with the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa to break the record for most home runs in a single season. Baseball audiences were electrified as they watched Sosa and McGwire exchange the lead. As they closed in on the new record, both players' accomplishments were undermined by revelations that they were using performance-enhancing drugs:
In late August 1998, Steve Wilstein, an Associated Press reporter, peered inside McGwire's locker and noticed a bottle of androstenedione, a pill that produced male hormone for the intended purpose of building muscle mass. Andro, as it was called, was a dietary supplement whose creation was designed to mimic a steroid. Confronted about the substance, McGwire admitted to using it. The news swept baseball like a prairie fire. Suddenly the home run chase was embroiled in scandal. The New York Times blared: "The News is Out: Popeye is Spiking His Spinach."
— Bryant (2005, p.134)
While these examples of deviance involve illegal or illicit actions, the field of deviance also includes a variety of socially unacceptable or stigmatized conditions or statuses. One commonly stigmatized condition in American culture is obesity. While many of us may feel that it is unfair to look down on those who are considered "fat," we are all aware of the self-consciousness that many heavy people feel and of shameful behaviors toward them, such as that captured in the following young woman's experience:
I was fat on this Saturday. I know how fat. I would let a torturer use pliers to pull teeth from the tender gums in the back of my head before I would say what I weigh when I'm fat. What I weigh seems like a secret that must be hid carefully. But what happened that Saturday was that a white Chrysler convertible, top down, sped south, toward me. Four boys were in the convertible, college boys is what they looked like ... A grin spread across the face of the boy in the front passenger seat and I knew what was coming. "Oink, oink, oink," he squealed. His companions joined him, "Oink, oink, oink." And a two-fingered high-pitched whistle and "Sooey, sooey, pig!" Then they were gone in the stream of traffic and I looked straight ahead and just kept walking. This was not the first time in my life that someone had called out to me, "Sooey, sooey, pig." I was used to being called names.
— Moore (2005, p.32)
Each of these examples illustrates part of the drama of deviance. Why do people engage in behaviors that are disapproved of and often punished? And why do they allow themselves to have a status that is widely looked down upon? Before we look at deviance from a sociological perspective, it is useful to consider some of the common ways deviance has been explained in human societies. Three popular explanations in particular provide useful comparisons. We can refer to these explanations of deviance as "the demonic," "the psychotic," and "the exotic."
Each of these views points to a different cause of deviant behavior. The demonic view argues that "the devil made him do it." The psychotic view proposes, "She did it because she was crazy." And the exotic view explains, "That kind of thing is okay where they come from."
How is it possible for things that we see as so clearly bad to be viewed in such different ways? This is one of the central questions of deviance at the blurred boundaries.
DEVIANCE AS DEMONIC
In the Bible, Eve (and then Adam) committed the first act of transgression against God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here, early in Jewish and Christian scriptures, we see an example of perhaps the oldest explanation for deviance. Why did Eve deviate from the sacred rule of God? She did so because a demon, Satan in the form of a serpent, tempted her. Deviance, according to this view, is caused by demonic possession.
While other societies may have much different stories of creation and images of God or gods, many societies have held beliefs that evil acts and objectionable conditions are caused by malevolent, evil forces. Thus we find Loki, the Norse god of guile and deception; Eris, the Greek goddess of strife; and Native American myths of Trickster Coyote who seduced women — and men — and caused general discord as he conned his way across the countryside. Indeed, belief in evil spirits has been remarkably widespread. Some of the earliest known writings, those of Sumerian culture nearly 6,000 years ago, refer to demons called gid-dim — demons believed to cause mental problems and disordered behavior. Zoroastrianism (a Middle Eastern religion in the millennium before the Christian era) proclaimed that the evil god, Angra Mainyu, ensnared humans in sinful lust through his witchcraft. And numerous more localized folk beliefs have attributed individuals' bad and unusual behaviors to becoming possessed by malevolent spirits that inhabited the woodlands, marshes, and animals in their worlds.
The most extreme beliefs in demonic possession occurred in Europe in the Middle Ages, where from the early decades of the fifteenth century through the 1650s, an estimated 200,000 to half a million people, most of them women, were burned at the stake, hung, or otherwise executed for being witches (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 2009, p.144). In 1487, two Dominican priests published what was to become the key text for witch hunting for the next two centuries. Their book, Malleus Maleficarum ("The Witch's Hammer"), claimed that Europe was experiencing an epidemic of women conspiring with Satan against God. When women lost their virginity, the priests argued, they became obsessed with sexual desires, thus making it easy for the Devil, in the form of an incubus (a demon in human form), to seduce them. Once seduced by Satan, women became witches and turned to sorcery (rituals to cause supernatural effects) and heresy — devil worshipping and antireligious practices such as the "Black Sabbath" or inverted Mass (portrayed in the sixteenth-century wood engraving at the start of this chapter, titled Witches' Sabbath, by German artist Hans Baldung Grien). In the American colonies, on a smaller scale, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 dramatically played out the belief in the demonic possession of witches, culminating in the imprisonment of nearly 200 Salem residents and the hanging of 20 of them.
Beliefs about the paths by which people become possessed by demons vary from culture to culture. In some, individuals who are out after dark are thought to fall prey to evil-spirited night animals such as owls or cats. In Europe during the Middle Ages, as we have seen, women were believed to be sexually seduced into conspiring with the devil. In the early twentieth century in the United States, popular Protestant evangelist Billy Sunday preached that men, not women, were the most vulnerable to the devil's wiles, and that liquor, not sex, was the means by which he ensnared them. In his famous sermon, "The Devil's Boomerangs," Sunday proclaimed:
Listen! Seventy-five per cent of our idiots come from intemperate parents, 80 per cent of the paupers, 82 per cent of the crime is committed by men under the influence of liquor, 90 per cent of the adult criminals are whiskey made. The saloon is the sum of all villainies. It is worse than war or pestilence. It is the crime of crimes. It is parent of crimes and the mother of sins. It is the appalling source of misery and crime in the land and the principal cause of crime. The devil doesn't let a man stop to think what he is doing, that in every added indulgence in a drink he grows weaker.
— Sunday (1920)
As we will see later, Billy Sunday's sermon's on "demon rum" struck a responsive chord in the era leading to Prohibition, winning him many followers — as well as many enemies. But even many who did not accept Sunday's message were enthralled by his preaching style — a dramatic and compelling fight with the devil that has yet to be matched by even the most dramatic televangelists.
It is easy, perhaps, for most of us to discount beliefs in demonic causes of deviance when they come from cultures far from our own. In fact, many Americans today discount belief in demons and Satanic forces entirely, preferring more secular explanations for deviance. Of course, many other Americans continue to believe that the devil is a real force in the world today. Whatever your personal beliefs, it is clear to see how demonic explanations could provide one kind of answer to the question of why people engage in deviance. Consider each of the cases with which we started the chapter.
The professional hit man's willingness to kill for money, his affiliation with an underworld of crime and corruption, and his stone cold heart as he pulls the trigger to end another person's life all seem to locate him squarely in the devil's dominion. Similarly, a priest who takes advantage of his sacred authority to trick a child into sexually gratifying him can be seen as having fallen prey to the devil's "temptations of the flesh." In comparison to the hit man and the pedophile priest, a professional athlete's willingness to cheat by using illicit performance-enhancing drugs may seem relatively mild. But greed for fame and personal gain has long been associated with the devil. One of the most enduring legends in American folk culture tells of the great blues singer, Robert Johnson, selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for a superb ability to play guitar. The parallel to Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's use of illicit drugs to excel in professional baseball is obvious.
Finally, we have the case of the overweight young woman. At first glance, it might seem difficult to conceive of her deviance as inspired by demonic forces. And yet, gluttony, or the sin of overindulgence, was considered one of the seven cardinal, or deadly, sins of early Christianity. Like sexual desire and greed, it was one of Satan's temptations, to be resisted by those seeking God's salvation. In his letters to the Philippians, Paul counsels against the sin of overeating, writing of those who overindulge that "their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame" (Philippians 3:19). Even today, the language of sin and temptation permeates our talk about food, as "sinfully delicious" and "temptingly tasty." And, as we will see later in this book, "fat" people are often stereotyped as weak willed and lacking moral discipline.
DEVIANCE AS PSYCHOTIC
The belief that evil forces or demons cause deviance has persisted over thousands of years, making it the longest-lasting explanation of deviance in human history. But today, in America, evil is a less pervasive explanation of deviance than in the past. In the US and other modern western cultures, the most common explanation for many forms of deviance is illness — specifically, mental illness of one kind or another. In popular terms (as opposed to precise medical definitions), we can refer to this view of deviance as psychotic.
Medical explanations for objectionable behaviors and conditions are not new, but they expanded enormously in their influence during the twentieth century, in tandem with the rise of medical science in general, and psychiatry in particular. Psychology courses titled "Abnormal Psychology" exemplify this kind of explanation. Broadly speaking, abnormal psychology scholars explain mental disorders and deviance as caused by either biological defects or problematic psychological development. Behavioral genetics, for instance, is widely discussed among psychologists and psychiatrists as a cause of "such diverse disorders as schizophrenia, depression, criminality, and mental retardation" (Sarason and Sarason 2005, p.53). Alternatively, psychological theories of abnormality may focus on problematic psychological development resulting from traumatic experiences or unresolved psychological conflicts. In each of these explanations, whether due to defective genetics or unhealthy psychological development, deviant behavior is a sign of sickness.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Views of Deviance Introduction Blurred Boundaries: The Drama of Deviance Deviance as Demonic Deviance as Psychotic Deviance as Exotic Deviance as Symbolic Interaction: A Sociological Approach Social Acts Focus on Observable Behavior Symbolic Interaction The Sociological Promise Summary Keywords Chapter 2: Getting Close to Deviance Blurred Boundaries I: Getting Close to Deviance Sociology as a Mode of Inquiry Counting Deviants Value of Surveys and Official Statistics Limitations of Official Statistics Counting Rape and Sexual Assault Official Statistics as Organizational Processes Summing Up the Numbers Challenges of Deviance Ethnography Focus of Deviance Ethnography Gaining Access Getting People to Open Up Fieldwork Roles Getting Along in the Field Collecting Data Narrative Analysis Understanding Social Worlds Different from Our Own Getting the Big Picture: Sociohistorical Comparison Blurred Boundaries II: How Close is too Close? Summary Keywords Chapter 3: Positivistic Theories of Deviant Behavior Blurred Boundaries I: Why is Mike in Jail? Introduction to Positivistic Theories Biological Theories of Deviance Lombroso’s Italian School of Positivist Criminology Biological Theories in Twentieth-Century America Critique and Further Directions Social Structural Theories Social Disorganization Theory Critique and Further Directions Anomie Theory Durkheim’s “Anomie” Merton’s “Social Structure and Anomie” Critique and Further Directions Socialization Theories Differential Association Theory Sutherland’s Key Principles Critique and Further Directions Social Learning Theory Critical Evaluation Social Control Theories Social Bond Theory Self-Control Theory Critical Evaluation Blurred Boundaries II: “Influences” versus “Causes” Summary Keywords Chapter 4: Symbolic Interactionist/Social Constructionist Perspective Blurred Boundaries I: Consensus and Conflict in Constructing Deviants The Roots of Symbolic Interaction: The Social Self Labeling Theory and Social Construction Social Construction of Deviance Categories Resource Mobilization and Deviance Framing Resource Mobilization Deviance Framing Credibility Atrocity Tales Cultural Resonance Initial Rule-Breaking and Primary Deviance Primary versus Secondary Deviance Biography and Effective Environment Techniques of Neutralization The Roles of Others Turning On Limits of Voluntary Choice Processing Deviants Stereotyping and Master Statuses Institutionalizing Deviance Typifications and Recipe Knowledge Stigmatization and Resistance Stigmatization and Role Engulfment Stigma Management and Resistance Stigma Management among the Discreditable Stigma Management among the Discredited In-Group Stigma Management Blurred Boundaries II: Framing Surprising Alliances Summary Keywords Chapter 5: Murder Blurred Boundaries I: Two Convicted Murderers Current Constructions of Murder in the United States Types of Murder Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Murder Counting Murder Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Murder Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Murder in the United States Early America Whites and Native Americans Whites and Slaves White-on-White Murder Civil War to World War I Post-World War II Landscape of Murder in the New Millennium Social Capital and Homicide Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Character Contests: Six Stages Stage One: Personal Offense Stage Two: Assessment Stage Three: Retaliation Stage Four: Working Agreement Stage Five: Battle Stage Six: Resolution Contemporary Responses to Murder Punitive Responses Contextual Responses Stigma Management and Resistance Blurred Boundaries II: Is Assisted Suicide Murder? Summary Keywords Chapter 6: Rape Blurred Boundaries I: Two Sexual Assaults Current Constructions of Rape in the United States Types of Rape Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Rape Counting Rape Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Rape Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Rape in the United States Early America Post-Civil War Era Feminist Era: 1960s–Present Rape Proclivity and Routine Activity Theories Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Stranger Rape Phase One: Preexisting Life Tensions Phase Two: Transformation of Motivation into Action Phase Three: Perpetrator–Victim Confrontation Phase Four: Situation Management Phase Five: Disengagement Party Rape Contemporary Responses to Rape Identifying and Processing Rapists Treatment of Rape in the Courts Stigma Management and Resistance Blurred Boundaries II: What is Too Drunk to Say Yes? Summary Keywords Chapter 7: Financially Motivated Crime in the Streets Blurred Boundaries I: Two Thieves Current Constructions of Street-level Property Crimes in the United States Types of Street-level Property Crime Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Street-level Property Crimes Counting Street-level Property Crime Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Street-level Property Crime Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Response History of Street-level Property Crimes in the United States Merton’s Social Structure and Anomie Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Contemporary Responses to Street-level Property Crime Stigma Management and Resistance Blurred Boundaries II: A College Education for Prisoners? Summary Keywords Chapter 8: White-Collar Crime Blurred Boundaries I: Two White-Collar Crimes Current Constructions of White-Collar Crimes in the United States Types of White-Collar Crime Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching White-Collar Crime Counting Crime in the Suites Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of White-Collar Crime Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of White-Collar Crime in the United States Rise of the Robber Barons Progressive Era and Regulatory Control White-Collar Crime in the United States Today Merton’s Social Structure and Anomie Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Contemporary Responses to White-Collar Crime Stigma Management and Resistance Blurred Boundaries II: Should Michael Milken Get a Presidential Pardon? Summary Keywords Chapter 9: Alcohol Abuse Blurred Boundaries I: Two Faces of Problem Drinking Current Constructions of Alcohol Abuse in the United States Types of Alcohol Abusers Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Alcohol Abuse Counting Alcohol Abuse Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Alcohol Abuse Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Problem Drinking in the United States Pioneer America The Road to Prohibition The Medicalization of Problem Drinking The Age of Ambivalence Social Learning Theory and Alcohol Abuse Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices College Binge Drinker The Alcoholic Drunk Drivers Contemporary Responses to Problem Drinking Punitive/Treatment Response Contextual Responses Stigma Management and Resistance In-Group Strategies Out-Group Strategies Alcoholics Anonymous and Identity Transformation Blurred Boundaries II: Contextual Responses to College Drinking Summary Keywords Chapter 10: Drug Abuse Blurred Boundaries I: Two Drug Abusers Current Constructions of Drug Abuse in the United States Types of Drug Use and Abuse Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Drug Abuse Counting Illegal Drug Use Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Drug Abuse Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Drug Abuse in the United States Unregulated Early America Road to Punitive Prohibition The War on Drugs Social Learning Theory and Drug Abuse Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Marijuana Hard “Street” Drugs Contemporary Responses to Drug Abuse Punitive Prohibition and Reducing Supply Drug Courts Harm Reduction Stigma Management and Resistance In-Group Stigma Management Out-Group Stigma Management Collective Action Blurred Boundaries II: Is It Time to Legalize Drugs? Summary Keywords Chapter 11: Sex Work Blurred Boundaries I: The Street Prostitute and the Playboy College Girl Current Constructions of Sex Work and Pornography in the United States Types of Sex Work Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Sex Work Counting Sex Work Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Sex Work Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Sex Work in the United States Antebellum America and the Wild West The Gilded Age of US Prostitution The Great Social Evil The Internet Era Merton’s Anomie and Social Learning Theories Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Prostitution Street Prostitution Massage Parlors and Brothels Escort Services Dancing for Dollars Oppression and Empowerment Paradigms Contemporary Responses to Sex Work Policing Prostitution Rehabilitation Programs Legalization and Regulation Stigma Management and Resistance Techniques of Neutralization Living in the Closet Stigma Management with Customers Mutual Support Coming Out of the Closet and Collective Action Blurred Boundaries II: The John Shaming Debate Summary Keywords Chapter 12: Mental Illness Blurred Boundaries I: Two Faces of Mental Illness Current Constructions of Mental Illness in the United States Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Mental Illness Counting Mentally Illness Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Mental Illness Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Treatments History of Mental Illness in the United States Era of the Asylum Deinstitutionalization Era Antidepressant Era Social Stress Theory Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Alienation from Place Definitive Outburst Help-Seeking The Medication Experience Depression and Medication Schizophrenia and Medication Hospitalization Contemporary Responses to Mental Illness Community Care? Criminalization of Mental Illness Mental Health Courts Stigma Management and Resistance In-Group Stigma Management Out-Group Strategies Collective Action Blurred Boundaries II: A Hyper Child of Your Own Summary Keywords Chapter 13: Obesity and Eating Disorders Blurred Boundaries I: Two “Fat” People Current Constructions of Obesity and Eating Disorders in the United States Types of Obesity and Eating Disorders Statistical Snapshot Challenges in Researching Obesity and Eating Disorders Counting Obesity and Eating Disorders Getting Close Cross-Cultural Constructions of Obesity and Eating Disorders Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses History of Obesity and Eating Disorders in the United States Colonial America Rise of the Antifat Campaign Fat in the Feminist Era Calories In-Calories Out and Self-Control Theory Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Dieting and Fitness Programs Facing Failure The Costs of Weight Obsession Contemporary Responses to Obesity Weight-Loss and Fitness Industry Medical Drugs Surgery Social Policy and Government Regulation Stigma Management and Resistance Weight-Loss Support Groups Challenging Frames Blurred Boundaries II: Banning Weight Discrimination in the Workplace Summary Keywords Chapter 14: LGBTQ Identities Blurred Boundaries: Two Stories of Same-Sex Attraction Current Constructions of LGBTQ Identities in the United States Statistical Snapshot Challenges in LGBTQ Research Counting LGBTQ Identities and Sexual Behavior Getting Close Cross-Cultural LGBTQ Constructions Different Definitions Different “Causes” Different Responses LGBTQ History in the United States Early American Secrecy 1890s to World War II The Cold War on Homosexuals Era of Collective Action and Conservative Responses A Post-Gay Era? The Limits of Positivistic Approaches Interactional Contexts and Ethnographic Voices Straight Gay Sex Today Coming Out Contemporary Responses to LGBTQ Issues Stigma Management and Resistance Blurred Boundaries II: “Gay” or “Straight”? Summary Keywords References